Refuge
by plumecrit
Summary: AU For years the rule of the Light has been untouched. Voldemort remains hidden, and Hogwarts is raising a new generation not longer tainted by the touch of evil. But the Dark Lord is gaining strength and the balance might shift again.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine, obviously, belonsg all to J.K. Rowling- thanks for creating a world to dream and roam in.

The small girl shivered out in the cold of November. Her feet were bare, her shoes had disappeared again. The icy wind tousled her strawberry blond hair. A sob escaped her and her shoulders trembled as she leant against the grey rock. Silent tears found their way over her jaws. The grass in front of her hiding place had a dead brown color. Her eyes followed one lonely, muddy leave that was dancing to the cruel melody of the up-coming storm.

She hated this place; she hated everything about it, every tinny detail. She had fled the castle hours ago, after her head of house had punished her for a crime she did not commit. She hadn't meant to curse anyone, but when she had seen her rags that had been her cloak just a few minutes ago, something had snapped. Even now, as she was staring at the Black Lake and those restless waves, she did not understand how she had done it, or what did actually happen.

She closed her grey eyes and huddled closer to the stone. One hour left until curfew. Then she would have to go back to the tower and face them, or maybe she would sleep in one of the unused classrooms. She had done it before. Absently she noted that she did not feel her fingers or toes anymore. She was prepared to stay like this, when she heart light steps approaching. She hoped that those did not belong to her housemates or the red-heads from Gryffindor that had chased her two hours ago. Maybe the person would not see her. Most people did tend to ignore her. It was a gift of hers. She had perfected it during the last two months. But sometimes it did not work and awful things happened.

The steps came to a halt. The girl looked up in panic. There was a small figure in front of her, a girl that was wearing a scarf in Gryffindor colors. She went for her wand. The Gryffindor who had found her held up her open hands, as she wanted to show her that she meant no evil. The girl saw that many questions went through the mind of the other. How she opened her mouth and closed again. Then she loosened her cloak and gave it to the freezing girl.

"The smell is because of the potion I am brewing at the moment", she explained calmly.

"Do you often brew polyjuice potion?", the girl asked the Gryffindor.

"No, it is the first attempt." They both fell silent for a while. "You are a dark witch", stated the bushy-haired after some hesitation.

The girl flinched.

"My friends are dark too, they just do not know it yet…I am Hermione", she added. Her eyes were free from malice as she looked expectantly to the girl.

"My name is Luna", she answered.

"I know", mumbled Hermione, "I have sensed you, I have seen you, but we have not met before. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

Luna cracked a smile. "You are like me; you can't control your gift. And you are hiding it, because you are afraid."

The Gryffindor did not answer. The small Ravenclaw was close to the thruth. She was afraid and she was hurting, right now. It was against the rules, her being outside, helping someone dark. The Light-Lord wouldn't approve. But it was the right thing to do. She smiled.

"Well it is close to curfew, we are outside in the cold, in the forecast they were talking about a blizzard, so yes, I am a bit frightened."

Luna could have answered many things. For example, that she did not trust the Gryffindor, because she did not _feel_ right or that she did like blizzards- what would have been a lie. At the end she settled for the truth. "I don't want to go back. I can't go back." The girl had shivered and a lonely tear had found its way down her jaw.

"You are coming with me. There is enough space at our dormitory, we are only three. My dorm mates won't care."

Luna furrowed her eye brows and heard the bushy heard Gryffindor mumbling "they'll better not, if they want to pass transfiguration."

Her bright laughter sounded through the storm, as she followed Hermione back to the old castle. They reached the entrance hall and started to climb the stairs, as Luna suddendly stopped walking. Dread, that was waht she felt. She had to leave, she had to hide, but was frozen to the spot where they were standing. It became difficult to breath. She started hyperventilating.

He was here, close to them. She felt him approaching, the Light-Lord was taking a stroll through the empty corridors of Hogwarts.

"Miss Granger, it is nearly curfew, what are you doing here?", headmaster Dumbledore asked, ignoring the small witch that hid behind the Gryffindors robes.

Hermione did not answer.

"Look at me child, you should not associate with", the Light-Lord paused, "well, that." And with "that" he meant the Ravenclaw, that flinched and cowered behind Hermione.

Luna felt Hermione hesitation. The stiffness of her back, the soft trembling. she knew it, the Gryffindor was a light witch, she would desert her, would leave her at the mercy of a man that had no mercy- even if everybody believed his benevolent farce. She felt that the Gryffindor drew a deep breath.

"That's Luna Headmaster." Hermione eyes found the icy blue one of Dumbledore who stopped twinkling. "Luna and I forgot time in the library, so I offered to show her a short-cut back to the Ravenclaw Tower."

The Gryffindor felt the eyes of the headmaster drilling into her mind. She concentrated onto the library the smell of old books and tried not to move or to show her discomfort. She was researching for the latest transfiguration and got a bit carried away. The books on household charms came into her mind. Knitting spells! She should really try this one out; she still had no Christmas present for Harry and Ron.

Whatever Dumbledore was looking for,at the end he did not find it. "Then you should hurry, Miss Granger", he said after a moment and left the girls.

Luna could not believe it. The girl in front of her had lied to the Light-Lord. She had defied him! She could not be light, every light wizard or witch would have felt compulsed to answer truthfully. In her delight that she finally had found a kindred spirit in this stronghold of light, Luna did not see how Hermione grabbed her wand hand to stop that one from trembling and the look of pain as the girl closed shortly her eyes.

"Let's go", she whispered in a strained voice.

They walked silently to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Hermione lent against the wall for support, as she tried to remember the password. Her head felt like it was exploding. "Courage", she said after a while. The Fat Lady nodded.

"They always keep changing; sometimes it is difficult to remember, even if that one was obvious."

Luna giggled under her breath. Nobody looked at them, as they made their way through the common room and climbed the stairs. The small Ravenclaw felt like she could burst of happiness some minutse later as she lay in a real bed for the first time in weeks without fearing for retribution. Her protector already slept and looked exhausted in the pale light of the dying candle in the left corner.

"Thank your Morrigan", she whispered into the dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: not mine, obviously...

The twins were not evil.

They loved all of their brothers and of course their little sister Ginny. But they could not help it, something was different about Ron. Their brother seemed so sullen, moody. Even when they had been younger, Ron had always been the odd one. Nobody ever noticed, as he was the sixth of seven siblings. Only the twins did from early on. He was not like the rest of the family, sometimes they felt like his aura resembled more Malfoy's than that of their father or brothers.

At the tender age of seven Fred and George had already understood that their brother was impure, tainted- dark. The result of their conclusion had led to the spider incident. Of course their parents did not want to hear reason. And little Ginny had adored her brother Ron. That changed this year, after Ginny came to Hogwarts and frankly the twins were quite happy about this estrangement.

It was better to distance from Ron. It would hurt less. Once their parents would find out, they would first try to cleanse their little brother and if that did not work, Ron would be cast out of the family. It would not work. The twins had researched during the whole summer at home and then they had turned the library upside down, until they had found the ritual they had once seen successfully performed on a distant cousin.

Their little brother had convulsed under their magic. Ron had screamed and they had been forced to reinforce their silencing spells a few times. They had fueled the pentagram with a lot power. Even now, more than three days later they were still exhausted. Of course there had been moments, when they wanted to stop. Fred shuddered while thinking about the blood that started running out of Ron's nose and ears. But it had to be done, that was what George and he had told themselves, the impure had to be cleaned.

At the end they had failed. Their brother's magic had broken out its confines and destroyed the pentagram. The earth had trembled and the hidden classroom they had used nearly collapsed.

It couldn't be helped. Ronnikins was not their brother anymore. They had left the dark wizard laying there in his own blood.

Now, four days later they rushed through a short-cut for their potion lesson that had already started five minutes ago. In their haste they did not see the small figure coming out of a corner, until it was too late.

"Incacerous", whispered a voice and ropes appeared out of thin air, tying both of them. Before they could even react or shout in surprise a silencing spell followed. With a loudless thud they fell onto the floor.

Fred cricked his neck to see their attacker. Surprisingly it was a girl, a small one. Did he imagine things, or was that a Gryffindor tie, she was wearing? She was so tiny, he mused as he saw her stepping out of the shadows. His housemate bent down. Fred changed a look with his brother.

No, they were not hallucinating; the rule-abiding Hermione Granger had attacked them in an empty hallway. Her hair was even bushier as usual and magic was dancing furiously around her curls. Fred could literally feel her ire that was pulsing in waves through the corridor. Granger looked into their eyes and whatever she was searching for, she did not find it. Fred felt her hesitating. Despite her rage she seemed somewhat insecure about how to proceed.

"Convello", she intoned finally.

Fred had never heard of this curse and opened his mouth to scream, as his body cramped. Everything seemed to be on fire. He tried to reach out to George via the connection they shared. For short instance he could feel the anguish of his brother. But then Granger made a sudden movement with her wand and the bond was severed. He was alone, utterly alone with the pain of his convulsing muscles.

Granger stood serenely next them looking like a dark demon out for revenge. Then, after a while her wand flicked and the pain subsided.

"You are going to leave Ron alone. Do not even think of attacking him again. Do not even consider telling your parents about him or I will make your life a living hell. Do not think about reporting, who would believe you?" Granger paused. "Do you understand me?" she asked after a while.

Fred and George nodded dazed. Granger severed their ties and before they could catch the second year, she had vanished. The twins stood up slowly and made their way to the dungeons. As they entered the potions classroom Snape welcomed them with the words "Weasely, Weasely you are fifteen minutes late, detention, thirty points from Gryffindor."

Fred looked to George. Really, that had happened all in the span of ten minutes? Later the day, as they passed the very same corridor, they saw a door of an unused classroom leant open and in the room were the reminders of a minor cleansing ritual that looked quite fresh.

Could it be that Granger...? But no, the goody-two-shoes know-it-all was just façade. Granger had to be dark, no twelve-year old light witch would be capable of using such a dark magic without showing any symptoms. No second year would be able to perform a cleansing ritual after using such a high amount of impure magic. The side effects were too severe.

If they had looked closer, behind the desk, they would have discovered their attacker, huddled against the wall, shivering madly, suffering from the aftershocks of the ritual.

Luna cuddled into the bed of her Gryffindor friend and waited. Hermione was late this evening. Their sleeping arrangement that had started three weeks ago had become permanent. It was close to midnight, when a cold body slipped under the covers. Luna hummed contently as she felt Hermione's aura next to her.

Her friend's magic was even more confusing than normal, it seemed a bit dark. Maybe Hermione was a late bloomer? Luna smiled softly. She prayed every night to Morrigan that the magic that engulfed her like a cocoon would also reach out and would make Hermione theirs- a part of dark ones.

Dark magic could be demanding- Luna knew that from experience. Had she been raised in a light family, she would have recognized the signs, but so she mistook Hermione's symptoms for a rude awaking of her friend's innate dark magic triggered by things that happened to Ron.

Luna turned around and embraced the shivering girl next to her. Hermione sobbed quietly.

"They deserved it. I wanted them to suffer as they made Ron suffer", her word were followed by violent spasms. Luna hugged her closer. While she petted her friend a smile that some people would have called sinister graced her face. Her own magic swirled comfortingly around Hermione. Yes, ours it whispered.


End file.
